Liturgy

SACRAMENT PROGRAM

'Family focused, parish-based, Catholic school-supported'

"Your unique and indispensable role in your child's Catholic Christian formation is one that both school and parish endorse and support. It is your privilege and responsibility, which follows from your commitment when your child was baptised, to present your child for the sacraments." Your family celebrates the sacrament in your home parish, the parish community in which you regularly participate.

Is your child in Years 3, 4 or 6?

John XXIII College prepares children for the various sacraments during the course of the year's religious education programs: Year 3 - Reconciliation, Year 4 - Eucharist, Year 6 - Confirmation.

Enrol in your Parish for 2016

Under the guidance of the Parish Priest, each parish is a unique community and offers the Sacrament Program within the context of the Parish community. If you have not already done so, you will need to enrol your child for the Sacraments in your home parish. Parents are encouraged to begin that conversation with their child and to contact their parish priest or parish sacrament coordinator to enrol their child in the 2016 program. The John XXIII College primary curriculum includes the relevant sacrament unit content. our College is enriched by families from many Parishes, not all of them close by. Parents are encouraged to enrol in their home parish.

Don't see your parish?

As a regional school, our College is enriched by families from many parishes, not all of them close by. Information for all parishes may be found on the archdiocesan website.
Further information is on the College website which is updated regularly or contact: Mary-Anne Lumley, Parish Liaison lumley.mary-anne@johnxxiii.edu.au.

Some of the parishes from our main catchment area have supplied the following information.

'GOOD NEWS'for1st Sunday in Lent

"Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus was led by the Spirit through the wilderness where he was tempted". (Luke 4: 1-13)

The reflection for this Sunday's Gospel is a homily by Rev. Prof. Michael Tate. Fr Michael Tate is currently a Parish Priest in the Archdiocese of Hobart and is Catholic Chaplain to the University of Tasmania where he is an Honorary Professor of Law, lecturing in International Humanitarian Law.

At his baptism in the River Jordan, Jesus clearly had a great religious experience. 'You are my beloved son, my favour rests on you.' He was confirmed in his sense of identity. But what then?

Listen to what happened: Jesus was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where the devil was waiting to put him to the test. What was the test?

The test was to realise that, even as the Beloved Son, he was not to be insulated from all the struggles and difficulties and setbacks of life. He would be challenged to live a life
- in harmony with the will of God,
- in which there would be no shortcuts to success.

In the 'Wilderness' Jesus was offered three shortcuts:

When he was hungry: bread out of stones, using miraculous powers for self-interest, to satisfy his own cravings.

When he wanted to change the world: absolute political power, to be handed to him by the devil to whom he should bow the knee.

When he needed to take risks: that angels would keep him safe - that the ordinary rules of gravity would be suspended just for him!

These were the three Temptations of Christ.

And His answer? 'I will persevere in my ministry, not expecting exceptional powers for myself. I will hold on to what I realised in a special way at my baptism. I am precious and loved by my Heavenly Father.

Each of us at our own baptism heard those same words in the depths of our hearts - the core of our emerging personalities.
'You are my beloved son.'
'You are my beloved daughter.'
'My favour rests on you.'

This does not insulate us from the difficulties and hardships of persevering and trying to live a life in harmony with God's will.

Which means that you and I can expect, have experienced, Temptations.

Think of any temptation in an important matter and look for this threefold pattern:

I want the whole world to change to satisfy me, or

I want to exercise power over others, coercive or manipulative, or

I want to take stupid risks and come out unscathed/unharmed, or

all three!

What must we do when such temptations assail us?

First, realise that such temptations come from an enemy already defeated by Christ - in his own time of temptation and definitively on the Cross, so temptations are much less powerful than they seem.

Second, really believe that you are a beloved child of God through the gift and privilege of the Sacrament of Baptism. Imagine if you and I really believed that and integrated it into our lives - then, as a consequence of living out that belief:
then the hungry would be fed, not having to pray for stones to be turned into bread.
then politics would change, abandoning the diabolical use of power to divide people.
then, the infantile fantasy that someone will always come to the rescue would give way to taking risks with our lives as adults willing to face the consequences.

COMMUNITY MASS

Lent, which commenced on Wednesday, is traditionally a time for renewal. Perhaps these six weeks of Lent are an opportunity for families to join in this community celebration of students, staff and families. New families are especially welcome and all the responses are on a PowerPoint. Mass finishes at 8:30 and the celebration continues in the café afterwards for those able to stay.